Kobe Bryant: It isn’t what it is

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BEIJING -- And now Kobe’s going too?

Happily, they’re starting the basketball competition so we may get a little relief from stories about the U.S. players’ delighted response to imaginary $40-million-a-year offers.

Unfortunately, the operative word in that sentence is may.

This Frankenstein monster of a non-story is a tad more serious with Kobe Bryant, who’ll be a free agent next summer -- rather than in 2010 like LeBron James -- and who is, after all, Kobe Bryant, meaning he could do anything.

In the latest ‘bombshell,’ Bryant said he would test the European market before he ever re-signed with the Lakers, even if leaving would be hard, noting, ‘It is what it is.’

Except when it isn’t.

Here’s what’s really going on:

Bryant is as hard-nosed in business as in basketball, which is as hard-nosed as there is. When the 1999 lockout ended after canceling half the season, the vote was 179-5 ... with the 21-year-old Kobe one of the five.

This is the essence of Bryant, the businessman. Whatever leverage he holds, he will hold it to the very end when it means the most.

Even if he intends to return to the Lakers — and he does — he won’t commit himself until the last moment.

It’s not a matter of having anywhere better to go. The Lakers will offer him every last penny they’re allowed to (with Bryant turning 31 next summer, that would be a four-year worth about $120 million).

I have thought all along that the Lakers would quietly ask him if he would be interested in an extension this summer -- and he would quietly decline.

If anything happened, it was quiet, all right. As we can see, Bryant doesn’t sound as if he’s about to re-up.

Unfortunately, as he found out last fall, there was no place in the NBA for him to go. Even as an unrestricted free agent next summer, the dynamic would be the same. No good team would have $24 million worth of cap room to sign him and he doesn’t want to play for a bad team.

Fortunately for Bryant, the Lakers turned out to be the perfect place for him. Of course, he knows better than most, as things can change unexpectedly for the better, they can change unexpectedly for the worse.

In a year, if the Lakers have turned out to be a bust, I could definitely see Bryant looking abroad to see if there’s anything out there for him.

Not that I can begin to imagine him going there.

Being Kobe Bryant also means wanting to be the best of the best. The Kobe I know is the one who said, ‘My hunger defines me,’ who said his greatest fear was never winning another title and he wasn’t talking about Eurobasket.

The Kobe I know is the one who, at least, thinks of himself as someone who has kept his motivation pure, who plays out of passion, rather than for money.

Assuming there’s ever a decision to make between the U.S. and Europe -- which I doubt -- there would be one more player: Nike.

Both Bryant and LeBron James stand to make more from the sneaker company the rest of their lives than they will in salary so Nike’s preference means a lot.

Nike may well prefer James in New York, as opposed to Cleveland -- it already markets him in Gotham as if he played there -- but I’m thinking the company prefers Bryant in Los Angeles, as opposed to Milan.

It’s true, you can never say never.

OK, almost never.

-- Mark Heisler